Thoughts on politics, faith, sports and other random topics from a red state sympathizer in indigo-blue Portland, Oregon.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

If the Oregonian ran our government

...we'd be in a world of hurt. Over the last month, the O has editorialized in favor of:

A new baseball stadium at the Rose Quarter (cost: $50 million).

Giving the old McCall’s Restaurant (3,843 sq ft) to the Portland Rose Festival Foundation for $1 a year (at the national average of $18 per square foot, the cost is close to $70,000 a year).

Spending $5 million (hopefully from the federal stimulus package) to rectify horn noise related to the Westside Express Service (WES) trains. (That's on top of the $166 million already paid for construction & the railcar construction company bailout.)

Pursuing federal stimulus money for “green” projects such as solar-powered highway lighting, a prison and a school. (Unknown cost, based on the overall price-tag and the amount covered by federal dollars.)

Raising the beer tax, just not as much as Rep. Ben Cannon wants (cost unknown).

Bailing out failing mortgage holders (cost: $75 billion)

Building the Columbia River Crossing (cost: $4.2 billion)

Revamping the nation’s healthcare system (cost unknown)

Avoiding cuts to state arts funding to prop up other state services (cost: at least $1.8 million)

Using the Kicker money to create a rainy day fund (cost: at least $1.5 billion)

And my personal favorite was on Feb. 22, when they had dueling editorials:

"With a $3 billion hole, first, stop digging" again urged the state to avoid its reserves until the next biennium, because of a projected $3 billion shortfall in 2010-2011, but also said we should expect additional taxes on corporations (i.e. employers), tobacco, gasoline and hospitals, along with an income tax surcharge.

Come to think of it, this list sounds a lot like the Democrats in control of the legislature. Purely a coincidence, I'm sure.